26 November 2008

I don't have a farm. I don't plant seeds, I bury them. So naturally
("nature" + "ally"), I am grateful to all of the farmers in my life.
They're my heroes.

This year in particular, my
appreciation has grown enormously, as I have gotten to be good friends
with a handful of farmers, with whom my family have shared many
beautiful dinners. These farmers and ranchers have not only supplied me
with the meat and vegetables on the table, but they have shown me,
through good times and bad, what it means to be a real friend.

Pictured
above is Love Apple Farm, owned by my friend—more like a sister—Cynthia
Sandberg. Tomorrow my family will join hers, and her crew of helpers
who've traveled from around the world to work on the farm. I'll get
there early to help with the turkey, which we'll cook using local herbs
and shiitake mushrooms. My ex-husband and our daughter, as well as his
two young sons, will be there, along with my biggest hero, Bob, who's
been my partner for over seventeen years. The little grandson we having
been raising for four years is out of town, but Logan is truly the center
of our gratitude to a beneficent universe for his presence in our
lives.

12 November 2008

Pictured here: squashes and pumpkins at Love Apple Farm, where I've been visiting lately. There are many reasons I've not been writing—all of October, even. Foremost, I've got some steady part-time work, and second to that, we've had more visitors and socializing in the last three weeks than in the past ten years. Some other projects and interests have popped up—not the least of which has been the birth of a baby boy in the house next door, and I've been (self-)appointed Court Photographer. I'm behind in e-mails and in other areas of life.

I only have time today for three brief announcements of some events very soon, and maybe you can avail yourselves of them. And then I hope to get back in the saddle with blogging. Much is happening on the local farm scene, and most all of it is wonderful.